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| Who We Are: Biographies |
Merritt founded Vox Optima in 2005.
With extensive background in broadcast
radio, media relations, communication training, issue management
and
crisis communication, she won a $5 million contract with her first proposal
for Vox Optima.
In 2004, Merritt distinguished herself and all of us
by being the 122nd person beaten by trivia megalomaniac Ken Jennings
on
Jeopardy! She lives in the mountains east of Albuquerque
where she and her husband run one head of dachshund and one of cat.
(And yes, she
really is a disabled veteran,
but you can’t tell most of the time.)
Gary holds a master’s degree in film production and has trained
hundreds of military broadcasters. You can’t tell he’s funny
until he opens his mouth; his master’s film project was a sitcom
pilot that was selected for showing at the Delray Beach Film Festival.
He has extensive international experience and an unmatched background
in video/multimedia production, communications planning, speechwriting
and media relations. Gary and his family live in Maryland and are restoring
a house in Sicily—Italy!
Dan is our “been there, done that” guy with more than 25
years of diversified experience (he entered the workforce at the age
of seven). His background ranges from active service in the Army to working
as a national-tier automotive journalist, directing multi-million-dollar
marketing accounts for the auto industry, and editing award-winning internal
publications for the U.S. Navy. His production experience spans print
editorial and design, video and multimedia. He’s married to fellow
Vox Optimite Andrea Ross.
James claims to be our adult supervision because he has an MBA. But he
is really much more interesting than that with more than 20 years of
experience in international relations, graphic design, video and multimedia
production, and publication management. He held the Navy’s top
print editorial post before retiring from active duty and joining Vox
Optima before we even had a bank account. James claims to be a skilled
musician (opinions will vary) and he lives with his family in southern
Maryland.
JC spends much of her time trying to keep our proposal efforts organized.
She notes that it’s “like herding cats with ADHD.” JC
is a skilled broadcaster, writer, editor and designer and is unmatched
in her ability to market stories: USA Today ran a story on new mattresses
on Navy ships (we’re not making this up) after her pitch. JJC channels
her free time into obsessively scanning a growing stash of business cards
into an electronic database and is pursuing a master's certificate in
government contracting at ODU. JC and her family live in Chesapeake,
Virginia.
Andrea is a former NCAA scholarship track-and-field athlete and is so
competitive she scares us sometimes. She has channeled that drive into
knockout client successes for Dodge Motorsports, Chip Ganassi Racing,
and our Navy clients. She is a results-driven communications planner
and skilled writer, editor and designer busy growing the next generation
of Vox Optima employees with three children, the oldest of whom is four.
Andrea and her family live in bucolic Lima, Ohio, not far from Dayton.
Joe enlisted in the Navy to be a diver and wound up retiring as a senior
Navy public affairs officer by way of the U.S. Naval Academy. “I
didn’t get to send enough broadcast faxes in the dive community.” Joe
made his mark with innovative, successful approaches to many high-visibility
issues, including the Egypt Air 990 crash and the
USS Cole. He
deployed to the Mideast in 2003 in support of
Operation Iraqi Freedom and he lays claim to the first live broadcast of a national morning news
show from the deck of an underway aircraft carrier. An aging surfer who
enjoys his wine, Joe recently moved from Coronado, California, to the
Hampton Roads, Virginia area with his wife and three children.
Being an Accredited Business Communicator is not as easy as “ABC,” unless
you’ve got Nancy’s more than 15 years of proven experience
in strategic communication planning and industry analyst relations. She
rode the technology wave up and own, with a soft landing teaching journalism
and public affairs to military trainees. As an enlisted and officer,
active duty and reserve, Nancy has traveled the world providing strategic
communications, media training and more — in fact, her talents
were so valuable to the Navy that she was recalled out of the reserve
and
is serving a 10-month active duty period.
With the assistance of husband, Nancy
works hard to keep their cat happy in Severn, Maryland.
Mark is a University of Nebraska graduate who has not shed “Big
Red Fever.” He spent 20 years in the Navy and earned a reputation
for hard work, innovation and strategic vision, including as the lead
public affairs officer for the largest U. S. military humanitarian assistance
effort in history after the 2004 Southeast Asia tsunami. He has extensive
international relations and media relations experience in Asia, Europe
and Africa. Coupled with masters degrees in communication and national
security/strategic studies, Mark brings the professional credentials
to tackle issues we haven’t even thought of yet. He has returned
to Lincoln, Nebraska to live with his wife and three daughters.
Jeremy is the new wordsmith in our company. With 10 years of experience
as a Navy journalist, Jeremy has spent plenty of time crafting stories
and presentations for radio, television and print. His hobbies do not
include cooking. In fact, while stationed in Japan, the fire department
had to evacuate his barracks early one Saturday morning after he attempted
to make breakfast. While he may not be the next Emeril, Jeremy does serve
up a choice selection of literary delicacies for our largest NAVSEA client
by providing carefully prepared speeches basted in the technical vernacular
and garnished with just a pinch of quips for bite. He lives in Maryland.
Early in his time as a Navy print and broadcast journalist aboard
USS
Theodore Roosevelt, John encountered a Special Purpose Marine Air Ground
Task Force. This SPMAGTF, as it was called, sparked a lifelong dislike
of acronyms. In his ensuing career as a civilian journalist in New York
and Virginia, he worked to unclutter complex messages and unpack densely
symbolic titles to convey real information, simply and accurately, to
a general readership. They are, after all, the people who need to eat
the tasty meat beneath the gelatinous film that is jargon. John lives
with his family in Portsmouth, Virginia.
